Drop Box, Part I

How many times have you bought car or truck and told yourself, "I'm just going to leave this one as is and drive it?" So you do drive it for a couple weeks, maybe a month, and then something needs to be repaired or replaced. Well, that little fix, it gets you to thinking, "Man, she would sure look good with a new set of wheels or even sitting a little lower to the ground!" So, the curse of not being able to leave well enough alone--or better yet, leaving something "stock"--has hit you and there's nothing that can be done but to satisfy those temptations.

This curse was the case with this particular '75 Chevy Cheyenne. Purchased with the sole intent of being just a "work truck," it soon became a daily driver. Well, daily drivers need to be up to par mechanically, and the old workhorse, albeit previously owned by a so-called garage, was in dire need of brakes, bushings, and some not-so-minor engine work (flat cam among other things--but that's another story for another day). Talks lead us to Jim Chaddick at Performance Online, a company coming on strong in the early-truck market. While Jim was in the process of developing his own line for the '73-85 Chevys/GMCs, he wasn't quite ready to debut it. So we suggested just using his replacement drilled/vented disc brake and suspension rebuild kits featuring Raybestos and Spicer products for the time being. He agreed, and we left the truck with his trusty crew.

Since we were going to have the suspension apart, why not have it lowered while we were at it? Sure, it's not stock, but it does make the truck look a heck of a lot nicer sitting closer to the new 15-inch wheels. Being that the ball joints were getting replaced, it only made sense that we throw in a set of 2-inch dropped spindles and 2-inch-lower coils, right? Sure it did, but it also forced the issue with the rear suspension. So it only made sense to bring down the back, as well. Our choice for drop components was Belltech's 4/6 (4-inch front, 6-inch rear) kit, which included the aforementioned spindles and coils, as well as a flip kit for the rear. Okay, so we weren't really making things easy on Jim, and we for sure weren't sticking to our guns in regards to leaving things alone... But, hey, we're car guys; we can't leave things alone!

If we could just convince ourselves (and our better halves, especially) that we will never, under any circumstances, leave our vehicles stock, then there would surely be peace in the valley! On the flipside of that, we'd never have any fun, would we?! So, follow along as we "ruin" another stock truck...just the way it should be! We'll start off with the desecration of the frontend, followed up with a story next month as we finish the rear.